CHAPTER 3

NO MATCH

Caelina shook off her reminiscing to focus on their current predicament. “Got any more ideas how to get out of here?”

Stellan shrugged. “I can still try to fight them.”

She gave him a doubtful look.

“What? I’m trained to fight under most circumstances—with one hand or even with both hands tied. I just know I’ll be more effective if my hands were bound in front of me instead of at my back,” he explained.

Still dubious but resigned, Caelina paused to think. “Fine, then let’s do that.” She cast her eyes up the wooden brace again. “We just need to figure out how to give your end of the chain enough slack so that you could pull your legs through or something.”

Stellan’s eyes were cast upward as well. “It almost looks like someone could just unhook the chain off the top of that pulley.”

“Or maybe if I just pull hard enough it would pop out—,” Caelina began as she gave her end of the chain one sharp tug.

“Ow, ow, ow, ow—!” Stellan yelped in pain as her movement tugged on his end of the chain, yanking his arms up the wrong way behind him.

Stopping short, Caelina cringed. “Sorry!”

“I don’t think that’s going to work.” Still grimacing in pain, Stellan blew out a breath as he collapsed against one of the wooden poles. “I’m not a flexible dancer like you.”

Caelina made a face at him in derision. She often practiced yoga as part of her mage training. With her love of music, dance and gymnastics naturally followed as some of the rare few things she did just for fun. Although she didn’t bother to ask how he could have known that.

“Well, this is just wonderful.” She threw her hands up weakly in front of her, rattling the chain again. “This is exactly how I would have wanted to start my life of wedded bliss.” She groaned out loud. “Why did you step us out of the assembly room last night? It obviously gave these pirates the perfect opportunity to kidnap us while everyone else was distracted.”

Stellan let out a stubborn huff. “What does it matter now? I just wanted to speak to you alone.”

Caelina’s eyes popped out in ridicule. “Why? So you can mock me again like you do every other day?” She made a face, drawing out her words. “Poor Caelina has no life. Poor Caelina has no friends.”

“What? I’m not wrong,” Stellan claimed, his tone self-assured.

She shot him another scathing glare. “You’re such a jerk! I can’t imagine how our parents thought this arrangement was ever going to work out.”

“Well, I am the strongest and most eligible warrior in the village,” Stellan tilted his chin up at his airy claim. “Do you even have any idea how many other women in the village—nay, across the continent—would have fought to have my hand in marriage?”

“Ugh.” Caelina retched. “Yes, I suppose that should be credit enough, shouldn’t it?” she mused. “I suppose managing the constant stream of women week after week should be considered an achievement?”

Stellan looked surprised at her knowledge of this but Caelina rolled her eyes. “I might live under a rock but I know about your reputation too.”

“How nice of you to think of me.”

“I promise you, I didn’t,” she admitted. “It’s just with a reputation so notorious like yours, it’s virtually impossible not to come across some lurid gossip about you every single week.”

It was Stellan’s turn to sneer at her. “What about you, little Miss Perfect?” he mocked. “You don’t even care about having your own life. Have you ever even had a proper suitor? You’ve never looked up from your books long enough to even glance at anyone else or pay anyone attention.”

“I had to!” she declared. “I couldn’t waste time on silly things like friendships or relationships or attachments. What did you think I was doing? I had to concentrate on my studies because guess what? Now I am the leader of our entire clan and I have to keep everyone safe!”

Bitter resentment blooming in her chest, Caelina was unable to suppress the emotions she had been keeping buried all these years. She ranted on, motioning with her chain again. “I had to be perfect! I had to master my training to be the strongest mage in our village. So that when the time came, there would be no question, no doubt, and everyone would agree. I was fit to lead our people.”

Almost breathless, her heart aching, the conviction in her eyes wavered. “I had to focus on my studies all my life if only to forget about this huge responsibility that was going to be mine someday. I’ve long since accepted my fate and I knew I would always be alone.”

Stellan’s intense gaze was boring into her. No doubt he had never seen her so distraught before. She had always been careful to keep up her formidable façade in front of everyone.

The chain rattled again as he took a step closer, out of the shadows, but no further. “Caelina,” he began. “I wish you had known that you didn’t have to take on all this by yourself. But regardless of our pasts, I know they have chosen well for us, for the sake of our people. You are the strongest mage. I am the strongest warrior. Together, we can protect Ipera. We can endure.” He met her gaze again. “You’ll never be alone again,” he promised.

Caelina swallowed at the timbre of his voice, the genuine concern and reassurance in it. They had certainly never talked this openly before. In fact, this was the longest conversation the two of them had ever had.

“I know there’s no way I could ever understand your loss or what you have gone through but all we can do now is move forward, starting with this union.”

Sighing, she cast her eyes down. “At least your parents were at the wedding. Mine are gone and I’ll never see them again. I hate them for that.” She couldn’t help the anger in her tone.

But Stellan’s tone remained calm, soothing. “My brother Callan would say it’s okay to hate people who are gone. That’s how you know you love them.”

Caelina broke a small smile. “Sounds like something Soleia would say.”

“I suppose that’s why your sister and my brother are friends.”

She sighed in resignation. “God, if Soleia were here, she could probably just portal us away before anyone even blinked. And Callan is actually a surprisingly astute and capable mage for a warrior,” she added.

A ghost of a smile hung around Stellan’s mouth. “If you think my brother isn’t half-bad, then perhaps you could think of me in a better light too. It would certainly make our marriage quite a bit more tolerable, wouldn’t you think so?”

Caelina met his gaze again. The brightening light of day seeped through the wooden slats above making it easier to see him. It could have been that Stellan was standing closer to her, or that she had actually bothered to look, but before today, Caelina had never noticed that his eyes were hazel.

Stellan. Her husband.

Before Caelina could form a response, loud shouts filtered through the deck floorboards and the ship’s rocking eased.

Stellan looked up. “I think we’ve docked.”